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WONLN
WONLN, channel 10 (both virtual and digital VHF), is a television station based in Orlando, Florida, USA. An affiliate of New Line Network, the station is owned by Raycom Media. WONLN's studios are located on John Young Parkway (SR 423) in Orlando, and its transmitter is located in unincorporated Bithlo, Florida. History The station first signed on the air on November 11, 1970 under the callsign WXOF, in preparation for a major population boom in the Orlando area that was to result from the 1971 opening of Walt Disney World. From the beginning, the station has been a New Line affiliate. It was originally owned by Storer Broadcasting. Its original studios were located on Texas Avenue, just north of Colonial Drive. The station moved into its current studios on John Young Parkway in 1984. A year later, in 1985, Storer nearly sold WXOF to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, but due to budget problems, Storer ended up keeping WXOF for an additional year. Following relaxation in rules in network ownership of their stations in late 1986, Storer sold WXOF successfully to New Line Stations, which resulted in WXOF becoming a New Line owned-and-operated station, and New Line then changed the callsign to WONLN to match what were now channel 10's sister stations (the WXOF calls are now used on the Fox affiliate in Mobile, Alabama). As a result of declining revenue at the entire New Line subsidiary of AOL Time Warner, in 2002, New Line announced a fire sale of 31 of it's O&Os primarily in mid-to-small-size markets, though a few large-market stations, including WONLN, were included as well. In 2003, New Line sold WONLN to Raycom. As a New Line-owned station, channel 10 cleared the entire network schedule. When Raycom took over in 2003, this changed rather drastically. A barrage of scattered primetime preemptions almost immediately followed. WONLN randomly replaced New Line prime-time shows with telethons and the occasional Walt Disney World travelogue, syndicated movie packages, and occasional sporting events, all of which allowed the station and Raycom full control of the ad time airing during the pre-emptions. Raycom preempted 103 hours of New Line primetime programs in 2004, accounting for nearly 10 percent of the network primetime schedule. By 2008, the primetime preemptions eased as New Line began to tighten down contractually on heavy primetime pre-emptions, and currently, the station only occasionally preempts a New Line primetime show, usually only for breaking news reasons. The station also began a 24-hour broadcast schedule in October 2006 after New Line began broadcasting between 1 and 6 AM every early morning. Digital television Digital channels The station's digital signal is multiplexed: Analog-to-digital conversion On June 12, 2009, WONLN shut down its analog signal, on VHF channel 10, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal then moved from UHF channel 55, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to the former analog position on VHF channel 10. Gallery NLN Bug 2002.jpg|Screencap from December 31, 2002 with New Line's screen bug of the period. News operation WONLN presently broadcasts 24 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with four hours on weekdays and two hours on Saturdays and Sundays). From the late 1980s through the present day, the station has almost always been in last place in the ratings. Management changes at WONLN had a number of general managers on the treadmill. News and sales departments had similar turnover, with at least five news directors taking the chair between 2000 and 2008. In 2008, WONLN began broadcasting its local newscasts in widescreen standard definition. On May 1, 2009, the station's 4 p.m. newscast was dropped due to low viewership. Category:New Line Network Category:Raycom Media Category:Orlando Category:Florida Category:Channel 10 Category:Television channels and stations established in 1970 Category:New Line Network affiliates Category:Former owned-and-operated stations